LDK Solar (NYSE: LDK) said Monday it expects to generate between $2.8 billion and $3 billion in revenue and ship between 1.45 gigawatts and 1.55 gigawatts of silicon wafers in 2009.

The Chinese company also said its wafer manufacturing plant has reached 1 gigawatt of annual capacity. It's a noteworthy milestone on the way to production capacity targets of 1.2 gigawatts by the end of the year, 2.2 gigawatts by the end of 2009 and 3.2 gigawatts by 2010 that the company announced earlier this month.

LDK shares rose more than 8 percent to reach $49.63 per share in recent trading.

The wafer maker's stock has climbed since it posted blockbuster second-quarter earnings on Aug. 11. LDK's net income grew more than fivefold year-over-year to reach $149.5 million, or $1.29 per share. Second-quarter sales more than quadrupled to $441.7 million from $99.1 million from the year-ago period (see LDK 2Q Profit Triples, Margin Falls).

Strong demand for its wafers has prompted the company to expand its production capacity quickly. LDK also plans to start making it own polysilicon, in addition to buying the raw material for making the wafers.

Production at LDK's first polysilicon plant is expected to begin soon and produce between 100 metric tons and 350 metric tons by December. The company is also building a second plant (see LDK Silicon Confirms Plant Is on Track).

LDK CEO Xiaofeng Peng told analysts two weeks ago that the company had a backlog of more than 12 gigawatts of wafer orders.

LDK expects to generate between $1.65 billion and $1.75 billion in revenue and ship between 750 megawatts and 770 megawatts of wafers for the whole of 2008.

Meanwhile, Tata BP Solar has set a goal of becoming a $1 billion company by 2012, according to The Economic Times. The joint venture between Tata Power and BP Solar also plans to expand its capacity to 300 megawatts, the newspaper reported.